Project Areas

Slains School
pupils enlisted to help protect our sealife

Pupils at Slains Primary School had a visit last Thursday
from ‘Freddie the Fulmar’ and heard all about how marine litter is harming our
sealife. During the session, they heard
how plastic breaks down in the sea into small pieces which last a long time and
are easily mistaken by seabirds for food. Over 3 million seabirds, including
500,000 fulmars, visit Scotland to breed every year.

Fulmars forage exclusively at sea, capturing prey from the
sea surface. They frequently ingest floating marine litter, including plastic
objects, confusing them with food. Unlike most seabirds, fulmars do not
regurgitate plastic particles but accumulate them. Ingested plastics reduce
food intake and the bird’s ability to process the food, leading to a
deteriorated body condition often associated with increased mortality and
reduced breeding success. 98% of northern fulmars now have plastic in their
stomachs. The children also heard how plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish and
eaten by sea turtles.

After examining a range of marine litter collected from
Collieston Beach, the children made some great suggestions for helping to solve
the problem – from more bins to beach cleans to the recruiting ‘litter police’. At the end, they discussed KIMO UK’s
‘Pick up 3 Pieces’ initiative.This
simple initiative invites visitors to beaches to make a difference by taking
just three pieces of litter home every time they visit.If everyone in Scotland’s coastal communities
did this every month, 55 million pieces of litter would be removed from our
beaches.

If want to get involved with Pick up 3 Pieces, visit www.pickup3.org.uk. The initiative is being promoted as part of
KIMO UK’s Fishing for Litter project and is just getting underway.